


Lockdown

by Singing_Siren



Series: Peter and The Avengers, as Seen by Midtown High [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, BAMF Michelle Jones, BAMF Ned Leeds, BAMF Peter Parker, Bullying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Flash Thompson Being A Jerk, Gen, Guns, Identity Reveal, School Shootings, nobody is hurt, panic attacks but nothing too graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-13
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-06-27 08:07:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19786747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Singing_Siren/pseuds/Singing_Siren
Summary: “Attention,” a woman says over the intercom, somebody from the main office probably. Her voice shakes. “We are now on lockdown. This is not a drill. I repeat, we are on lockdown, and this is not a drill.” She sounds terrified.Or: a student has a gun at school, and Peter needs to stop him.





	Lockdown

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! So, this one is more serious and angsty, proceed with caution. Also, read the end notes please.

Peter knows it’s not going to be a normal day.

He wakes up early and lies in bed, waiting for his alarm to go off. He stares up at the ceiling. His brain is cloudy, his chest heavy. Aunt May describes these kinds of days as “bad brain days.” Peter thinks this is accurate.

Ned greets him at the doors to the school with his normal grin. Peter can’t find it in himself to return it. Ned’s eyes soften. He understands, so he pulls him into a quick hug, noticing how heavy Peter’s body is. Ned guides him to their first period.

They go through their first four periods before Peter feels something other than cloudy. Adrenaline. It rushes through him, makes his hair stand on end and amplifies every sound in the school. He can hear somebody in the next class over cough, and it feels like it’s right next to him.

Something bad is about to happen.

“Attention,” a woman says over the intercom, somebody from the main office probably. Her voice shakes. “We are now on lockdown. This is not a drill. I repeat, we are on lockdown, and this is  _ not _ a drill.” She sounds terrified.

Peter’s heart speeds up. Ned grabs onto his shoulder tightly, and Peter can hear his shaky breathing. Nobody moves. One of the kids at the back of the class starts to hyperventilate. Abe tries to calm him down.

Mr. Cobbwell clears his throat, calling their attention. “We will be continuing our review through the lockdown.”

He continues to read out the review questions as the class stares at him in shock. MJ gets up. She doesn’t respond to his protests, instead moving to close the door, lock it, and turn the lights of the classroom off. She moves to sit in the back corner of the room. After a beat of silence, the class does the same.

“We will be fine,” Mr. Cobbwell says over the panicked whispering. “It’s just a lockdown. We have a test tomorrow, and I know that none of you have studied before today. So, what is the ideal gas law?”

Nobody responds. Mr. Cobbwell answers his own question and moves onto the next.

Almost everybody has their phones out now. Peter listens carefully to the hallway outside. He catches Cindy’s whisper to Betty in the process.

“My sister says there’s someone with a gun on the first floor. There’s police outside.”

Apparently, Peter’s not the only one who hears it. The class erupts into cries and whispers again. Abe pulls Garrett to him and tries to stop his panic attack, though Peter can hear the panic in Abe’s heartbeat. Peter squeezes Ned’s arm reassuringly. MJ shuffles closer to Cindy to help calm her down.

“My brother’s on the first floor,” Betty says softly. Tears run down her face. “He says he’s safe, but he’s scared. Luckily, he’s in a presentation with a bunch of military guys. They have tasers, but Morgan said on SnapChat that the guy has a knife and a gun.”

MJ reaches out and takes her hand.

Ned looks up at Peter with wide eyes. “What do we do? Can you text Mr. Stark?”

“Cut it, Leeds,” Flash growls, tears in his eyes, “this is not the time to lie about Parker’s fake internship. Just- just text your parents. Tell them you love them.”

Peter huddles closer to Ned. He takes out his own phone and texts May that he’s okay, that he loves her. Next, he pulls up Tony’s contact. He hesitates. What do you say when there’s a shooter in your school?

_ Tony, there’s a guy with a gun at Midtown. I don’t know what to do. If I get the chance, I’m gonna stop him. I love you. _

Peter clears his throat and shoves his phone back into his backpack. Mr. Cobbwell has stopped talking, instead looking uneasy as his students cry.

Peter gives Ned a look, something that he hopes conveys how he’s feeling. He reaches into his bag and discreetly pulls out his web shooters, using Ned as cover to strap them onto his wrists. He needs to do something. He hears heavy footfalls in the hallway just outside their classroom. The class stops, stops whispering, stops crying, stops breathing.

Peter repositions himself in front on Ned. The footsteps continue past their door. They breathe a collective sigh of relief.

“I need to do something,” he whispers as quietly as he can to Ned. MJ shakes her head, eyes pleading.

“You don’t have the suit,” Ned says, drawing some attention to them. Flash eyes them curiously, but he’s more focused on not going into a panic attack. Peter relates.

“So what? I can’t let anybody die when I can save them.” He doesn’t let Ned respond. He stands. Mr. Cobbwell tells him to sit back down, but Peter moves out of the crowd of crying students. Tears of his own slip down his face. The teacher moves to stop him, but he ducks out of the way, quicker than should be possible.

“Stay here,” he commands. He leaves the room, slipping through the door quietly. He trusts MJ to lock it behind him, but he still waits for the sound of the lock. It clicks.

He lets himself fall into mission mode. He adjusts his web shooters on his wrists and jumps up to the ceiling. His steps are light. Natasha made him practice not making any noise in case of a situation like this. Though, nothing could have prepared him for this.

Peter follows a steady heartbeat through the halls. He sees a mess of red hair below him and the silver gleam of a gun in the boy’s hand. The boy, a sophomore named Alec, drags another boy behind him, one of Flash’s buddies, Jones. Jones is crying, but he doesn’t protest, his scared eyes fixed at the gun pointing at his side.

Peter drops to the ground behind the two silently. He slowly lets himself be heard, increasing the volume of his breathing until Alec turns suddenly, gun pointing straight at Peter’s face.

“Alec,” he says though the emotion clogging his throat, “you don’t have to do this. Just let Jones go. We’ll get you help.”

“Help? Are you kidding? These guys hurt you just as much as they hurt me. And guess what, nobody cares. Nobody cares about us. Morita lets them go with a warning, even when there’s physical proof of what they’ve done. Move along, Peter. I have no business with you.” His hand tightens around the gun. Jones whimpers.

Peter listens carefully. Something about the situation sounds off. The noise the gun makes isn’t quite right.

“What happened, man? You hate guns. You hate violence. So what changed your mind?”

“You don’t even know? Wow. Guess they got let go. Well, I’m not going to let them get away this time. They hurt Marissa. It was  _ my _ fight. They were fighting _ me _ , but Marissa tried to intervene. She tried to get them to stop. Jones here punched her straight in the face. She’s in the  _ hospital _ because of them. It was my fight. They should’ve left her out of it.” His voice is close to tears now.

Peter sees his chance.

“I know the gun is unloaded, Alec. I also know that hurting Jones won’t help. It’ll just make things worse. Trust me. I’ve been where you are.”

Alec back up. His hand shakes. “How do you know the gun is unloaded?”

“That doesn’t matter. What matters is that I know how you feel. Before you deny that, let me talk. My uncle was shot right in front of me. I could have stopped it. I was there. My parents’ plane crashed when I was a kid. They died. A building was dropped on top of me. I had the chance to get back at the people who hurt me. But guess what? I let them go. If I had hurt them like I wanted to, my life would be ruined.

“If you turn yourself in now, they’ll let you go in a couple of months. You can live a normal life in a different school. Nobody will know what you’ve been through unless you tell them. You can forget about Jones and his friends. Trust me, Alec. Put down the gun and walk away.”

Peter steps closer. Alec breathes out heavily, tears streaming down his face. The gun drops to the floor with a loud clang. Alec falls to his knees. He buries his face in his hands. Jones runs in the opposite direction, calling out for help, his voice too loud for the current quiet of the school.

Peter webs Alec to the floor. Even without a gun, he’s still dangerous. Peter would know. Alec looks up at him in surprise, mouth open, but Peter just shakes his head.

“You shouldn’t have brought it to school, Alec. That’s on you.”

He turns and walks away, back to Mr. Cobbwell’s classroom. He calls out to Ned through the door, using their code word, telling him that he’s alone and safe. Ned pulls him into a hug and locks the door behind him. MJ reprimands him, But Peter doesn’t listen. He cries silently into Ned’s shoulder, arms limp at his sides. MJ joins the hug.

“What the hell were you thinking, Parker?” Flash says, anger clear in his voice. “You could have gotten us all killed by coming back here. You should have stayed out.”

Peter stops crying. He looks up, eyes hard. “I just saved your ass, Flash. Because of you and your friends, Alec brought a gun to school. Thankfully, it was unloaded. That’s the only reason Jones is still alive right now.”

He steps closer to Flash. “Your actions have consequences. This time, nobody was hurt, but what about next time? What if next time, one of your victims brings a loaded gun? What happens when they shoot someone because of what you and your friends did? What happens when you’re the one lying on the floor, bleeding out?”

“Peter, that’s enough,” Mr. Cobbwell says, seemingly getting his nerve back.

“No, Sir, it’s not. I have saved everyone in this school more than once, but what happens when I’m not here to help? Keep that in mind next time you ‘ _ tease _ ’ someone, Flash.”

“Shut up, Parker! I bet you’re making this all up! You’re nothing but a liar. How could  _ you _ have saved  _ us _ ? You are  _ nothing _ .”

The overhead speakers crack to life. “We are still on lockdown, but the threat has been taken care of. The police have arrested the student. Stay in your classes, everyone. We are still on lockdown.”

Peter sinks to the ground near the door. He ignores Flash. Ned pulls him into a side hug as they sit together on the hard floor. MJ sits on his other side and nudges him with a smile. He can tell she knows what he did. She looks grateful. Peter rests his head on her shoulder. On any other day, he would rather poke a tiger than do that, but today’s special.

He hears repulsors outside the school. Oh no. He shuts his eyes tight as heavy steps come toward their room. The students look towards the door, panicking again, but Ned unlocks, even as they protest. A silence falls over the class.

Peter sighs.

“I’m sorry,” he says. He looks up, meeting Tony’s sad eyes.

“Don’t apologize, kid. Come here.”

Peter launches himself into Tony’s arms as the Iron Man armor melts away. He wraps himself around him, tears soaking through Tony’s business suit.

“You did good.”

“No, I didn’t.” He pulls away. “I didn’t know that he had a hostage. I didn’t know that the gun wasn’t loaded. I was freaking out. I was careless, and it could have cost me my life. It could have led to Jones getting shot. I messed up, Tony.”

“No,” he says slowly, guiding Peter’s face to meet his eyes, “you did all you could. It was a stressful situation, and you did your best. Don’t put yourself down for that. Although,” he smirks, “you could have put the mask on first.”

Peter grins. He punches Tony’s arm halfheartedly. “Shut up. I was in a rush.”

Tony’s expression softens. “I know. I know, kid.” He wraps his arms around him again.

“I’m sorry, but what the hell is going on?” Flash demands. He looks shocked, but Peter can hear some anger in his words.

Tony seems to hear it too. “Peter took down the kid.”

“How did he do that?” Abe asks softly. He looks at Peter with his eyebrows raised.

“He’s Spider-Man,” Tony replies. “So, you should all be very thankful.”

Flash steps forward. “No way. Spider-Man is a hero. Peter’s just a loser. How much did he pay you to say that, Mr. Stark?”

Tony looks confused. “He didn’t pay me anything. Pete, want to show them?”

Peter sighs again. With his adrenaline wearing off, he just wants to go home, but he knows that Flash won’t let this go. He nods. With a jump, he’s on the ceiling. He looks down at his class’ surprised expressions, and he grins.

“Want to go home, kiddo?”

“Yes, please.”

Peter drops onto Tony’s shoulders, now covered in metal armor. His hands stick to the surface as Tony marches them out the door and into the hallway swarming with police officers. They push through them, Peter waving and sarcastically thanking them for helping out. The local PD doesn’t like him, so Peter loves to tease them.

Tony walks out of the school with Peter standing on his shoulders.

Parents and news reporters crowd the entrance, being held back by the school’s security. They look up as the doors open, and their jaws drop. May shouts out for Peter, calling attention to her. She rushes through the crowd and holds out her arms. He jumps down from Tony and lands in May’s warm embrace.

“I’m okay, May. I promise. I stopped him.”

She pulls back. “You doofus. You could have been killed! I get one text of you telling me you love me, then I have to find out from Ned’s mom about the shooter. Ned’s mom! My own son didn’t tell me he was going up against a kid with a gun.” She hugs him again, this time tighter. “I love you so much, my idiot boy.”

“I love you too.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so I really needed to write this because it's very important to me. This situation, without Spider-Man, happened to my school. A kid came to school with a gun, the woman on the intercom scared us all more than the situation, we were on lockdown for hours, the gun was unloaded, he did it because he was being bullied and somebody he loved was hurt because of it. The police got him before anybody was hurt, but it was terrifying. My sister was with a group of army guys in a presentation at the time. They had tasers. I changed the details somewhat, but my school went through this. I had a night mare about it last night, so I decided to write this to get it out of my head. 
> 
> Anyways, sorry for this whole thing. Tell me what you thought.


End file.
